Technology Talk - Twitter
by Jennifer Bolton-Carls, Ed. D., NYSASBO President Elect
If you have watched TV, searched online or even listened to the radio in the last year, you probably have heard the words “follow us on Twitter!” Everyone from Oprah to the leaders of Starbucks are using this social networking idea to promote products or to understand what their customers are thinking. Many of you are left asking yourself, what is this Twitter anyway?
Twitter is a microblogging service that allows friends, family, co-workers or customers to communicate and stay connected or informed. Quick, frequent messages posted to Twitter, called “tweets” must be 140 characters or less and can be seen by anyone who chooses to follow you. Your twitter profile can be updated by logging in on their website or by using your cellphone. You can control your followers as well as sign up to be a follower of people you know or people/companies you have interest in. The tweets are supposed to answer one question – “What are you doing?” but have grown into so much more.
The first question I always get asked is “Why would anyone care what I’m doing?” This is usually followed by “I have a boring life, who needs to know that I just ate breakfast?” The answer is simple, people don’t want to know what you ate for breakfast, but Twitter can be used to keep your followers involved in your busy life. Also, you can set up professional accounts that could be used to share information about what’s happening at your school.
On my personal twitter account, I have about 10 followers. These followers range from friends to family. I might post something like, “Leaving for Chicago! Will be back Tuesday.” Or “Headed to Happy Hour – join me at Jay’s Place”. This is a quick way to keep my followers informed or involved. On my professional twitter account, I am following NYSASBO. NYSASBO sends out periodic tweets alerting members to breaking news. For example, I was at a meeting out of the office on the day the Board of Regents announced our new Commissioner of Education. By receiving the tweet with this information on my cellphone, I was able to know and share this information quickly.
According to the New York Times, over 14 million people are using Twitter and these users visited the Twitter site 99 million times last month to read posts. Individually, tweeting might seem like just another internet time waster, but collectively we can see what the world is talking about and even shape public opinion. Even on the local level, schools like Queensbury Union Free School District have created twitter accounts to reach out to their community. An article in the Glens Falls Post-Star on November 1st, explained that the district leadership understands that this is just another way to keep people informed. They post things like team sports scores and reminders for a Halloween parade. I would also suggest this may be a good way to announce school closings or job openings.
In order to get started, you must sign onto www.twitter.com. From there, you will be prompted to join the conversation by signing up now! Here you will create a username, password and you must provide your email account. You can search for friends by name, user name or invite friends via email. You can also follow someone by searching in the same way. In order to set up your cellphone for twitter updates and twitter postings, you can add your number under your account profile. Once that is completed, you are ready to start using Twitter.
